


John ====> Wake Up

by Pillcaddyofbees



Series: Dream Bubble Chronicles [1]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Denial, Dream bubble bullshit, Dysphoria, Gen, More like Eggbert, Sadstuck, so much dysphoria
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:53:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,645
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24748663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pillcaddyofbees/pseuds/Pillcaddyofbees
Summary: John wakes up confused and tries to remember what just happened to him
Series: Dream Bubble Chronicles [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1789621
Comments: 1
Kudos: 20





	John ====> Wake Up

A young man stands in his bedroom.

It just so happens that today is his

Wait

That's not right

  
  


That can't be right

  
  


Logically, you know it's your 13th birthday. It's April 13th, after all. But, for some reason, you can already remember today. Dave had sent you that bunny, right? And then you went outside and eventually got the sburb beta and…

And…

Your name is John Egbert and you're already starting to get a headache.

As you struggle to figure out what’s going on with your memory, you sit down on your bed. Or, at least, you try to, only to realize that, where you were expecting the familiar softness of your bed, you instead find an uncomfortable slab of rock. 

The sight of it seems to knock loose something hidden in your memory. You can remember playing through sburb, and eventually, you got to a village, and this stone slab, or Quest Bed, Vriska called it, was there at the top of a hill, and you climbed up onto it and

You’re broken from your memories by the chime of a Pesterchum notification on your desktop computer 

  
  


**ghostlyTrickster**

began pestering

**ectoBiologist**

at 4:49 pm

GT: hey

GT: are you awake yet?

EB: i… i think so?

EB: my head is absolutely killing me

GT: yeah, it’ll do that to you sometimes.

EB: i’m sorry

EB: but what will?

EB: who even are you?

EB: You’re not exactly making me less confused.

GT: i’m sorry, but more of that is basically unavoidable

GT: so let me try to explain

GT: i’m you

GT: or at least, like, the platonic ideal of you

EB: huh

EB: So, you’re like john^2 or something like that?

GT: Not exactly

EB: I’m not really sure I get it

EB: Is it like that bruce willis movie? 

GT: not really

GT: but if it helps to think of it as Looper, then go ahead

EB: what’s Looper?

EB: i was thinking of 12 Monkeys 

EB: are you saying that there’s more than one flick where bruce willis meets his past self in the future?

GT: yes

GT: that’s exactly what I’m saying

EB: sweet!

EB: but I feel like that’s kind of getting off topic

EB: seriously, what happened to me?

GT: again, I know I’ve just been blindly dropping a lot of truths on you

GT: but please just bear with me a little bit more

GT: there’s not really an easy way to say this

GT: you’re dead

EB: wait, what?

EB: fuck

  
  


You take a step back from your computer, reeling a bit from the conversation you just had. You try to think back to what happened just before you woke up. You sat on that quest bed, and then Vriska did something to make you fall asleep. You don’t remember much after that, just a sudden, stabbing pain. Almost as if you had been stabbed.

Huh

That…

Explains things, you guess.

You look around your room(?)

The more you look around it, the more you notice that things are a little bit off. The corners of your door are a little bit too square, the light too bright.

You didn’t think that heaven would have quite so many movie posters, but the more you think about it, the less surprising it seems. 

You decide to go back from the confusion of your room to the confusion of your conversation with future you.

EB: okay, so, uh

EB: where do I go from here?

EB: i’m pretty sure that this game really doesn’t like having deaths be permanent

EB: so, is there like a quest item i need to collect?

GT: no, not really

GT: in the game, you’re not even dead

GT: you respawned with new pajamas and some super powers

GT: but every death leaves behind a ghost, even if you get better

GT: and that would be you!

GT: or, at least, this specific you

GT: not the general idea of you

GT: that’s me

GT: :D

EB: huh

EB: that makes basically no sense.

EB: but i think i get the important things

EB: so, is this it?

EB: i’m just going to sit around in the after life forever?

GT: oh, definitely not

GT: we’ve still got lots of character development and stuff to get through

GT: after all, the main you is worrying about all that major, universe type stuff

GT: but that doesn’t mean you don’t also still have all kinds of personal issues and some such that still need to be dealt with

EB: such as?

EB: i don’t really have emotional issues

EB: that’s kind of more dave’s thing

EB: sure, i get sad sometimes

EB: but not like in an weird bad way, just a normal way

GT: really?

GT: even now, you don’t feel like something’s wrong?

EB: what?! no!!

EB: i’m a little confused, but other than that, I feel mostly normal

GT: that’s not good

GT: you just died

GT: you are literally the idea of us having a normal life’s ghost

GT: that isn’t normal

GT: that should feel deeply wrong

EB: i'm sorry

EB: what are you actually trying to say?

GT: has it ever occurred to you that the reason that you don't feel like something is wrong is that you always feel like something's wrong?

EB: no

EB: why would you even say something like that 

EB: i don't have any problems with my body

EB: you're probably not even me from the future

GT: jeez, i forgot how hard it is to talk to us about anything even vaguely bordering this

GT: your shell is made out of like titanium or something 

GT: 1. I never said i was from the future

GT: that was all you, egbert

GT: 2. i also never said anything about body image

GT: you're the one who brought that up, dude

You pause for a second.

Something about this conversation is starting to rub you the wrong way. You can feel yourself getting more annoyed, but you have basically no idea why, and it's really frustrating. Who is this person, any way? Why does she think she has the right to just barge in and start telling you what to do.

Wait.

You're not sure where "she" came from, in your internal monologue. She hasn't even told you her name, much less what her gender is or isn't.

You're interrupted from this rapidly derailing train of thought by the sudden realization of exactly how fucked your current situation is. You were fucking sacrificed by some alien just so that a more useful version of yourself would show up, is that it? You're 13! You had a normal life ahead of you. You should be worrying about who your teacher will be next year, not getting fucking stabbed by a chess piece with a magic ring.

You decide to try and snap yourself out of your increasingly spiraling mind and walk downstairs, heading towards the sink. Your legs are working remarkably well, all things considered, and you stumble over and start to splash water on your face.

As you resurface, you catch a glimpse of yourself in the mirror, and your heart drops. You can’t help but notice just how much you’re starting to look like your dad. This isn’t surprising, after all, isn’t it only right that a father and son look alike? But something about it just burrows deep inside you and grabs onto your heart.

You’re not sure why, but for some reason that glimpse of yourself in the mirror hurts you physically. You feel a sensation starting to grow deep in your core, like your blood is crystallizing into shards that dig into you until your vision clouds up and the only thing you can even experience is this gnawing, frigid pain. You look down at your body, trying to ground yourself somehow, but you can’t recognize yourself beneath your bulky, too wide shoulders and horrible protruding rib cage.

You try to let go, to get away from this pain and

  
  
  


For just a moment you feel yourself starting to dissolve 

  
  


Your hands start to

  
  
  
  
  


Blur and transform

  
  
  
  
  


And your thoughts 

  
  
  
  


Meld 

  
  
  
  


Together and spread

  
  
  
  
  


Out as you

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Become

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


Th

E

  
  


W

I

  
  


N

  
  
  


D

  
  
  
  
  
  
  


But too late you realize that you take the pain with you and now it takes over by overwhelming you

  
  


And it devours you from the inside

And you just want to figure out what’s wrong 

  
  
  


And you just

  
  


Want to

  
  


Stop 

  
  
  


But it overtakes you

  
  
  


And there’s nothing left but cold and pain and you realize that 

  
  
  
  


You can’t hide 

  
  


Because

  
  
  


The problem

  
  
  


Is you

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


You slam awake sweating profusely, looking around to make sure that you’re finally free, and from what you can tell, you are. You’re laying in your regular, normal, cozy bed with your old familiar sheets, and you can smell something delicious cooking downstairs.

But just as you’re finally convincing yourself that all this was just a bad dream, you notice that your room seems… off, somehow. It’s your room, sure, but even though most of the stuff is yours, there’s also what look like cooking implements scattered around the cakes and movie posters. Whereas your wallpaper was a solid, darker blue, it has started to fade, and the walls are a gradient between the normal shade and a lighter, robinshell blue. 

Before you can make too much sense of what these changes could mean, however, your computer lights up with a notification

  
  
  


GutsyGumshoe

Began pestering

ectoBiologist

At 09:45

GG: Hello!

GG: When you wake up, would you please come to the kitchen?

GG: I’m really excited to meet you!

GG: I made breakfast :B!

GG: On a more important note, though, I think you and a friend of mine need to have a chat.

  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, this is quite literally one of my first fics. I’m trying to continue the series, have some patience please


End file.
